As recently released satellite images, ground temperatures in at least one location in the Arctic Circle reached 48 degrees Celsius on the hottest day of the year. It's been a particularly hot summer in Siberia, and it certainly won't be the last.
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While many have turned to the American West, as cities like Phoenix and Salt Lake City experienced extremely high temperatures last week, a similar climate anomaly has unfolded on the opposite side of the world in the Arctic Circle. This is not surprising as we know that global warming is a global issue and all regions of the Earth are affected.
The temperature of 48 degrees Celsius was measured in Verkhojansk, Yakutia, East Siberia, by the Copernicus Sentinel . Other ground temperatures in the region included 43 degrees Celsius in Govorovo and 37 degrees Celsius in Saskyla, which were the highest temperatures since 1936. It is important to note that the temperatures were measured at the ground surface, not in the air. The air temperature in Verkhojansk was 30 degrees Celsius.
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But ground temperatures that high are still a bad sign. These temperatures are penetrating the region's permafrost, the permanently frozen ground that traps greenhouse gases and on which much of eastern Russia. As the permafrost thaws, it releases the methane it contains back into the atmosphere, causing gaps in the Earth.
In addition to the harmful effects of more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the melting ice is destabilizing the Siberian land, destroying building foundations and causing landslides. It is also exposing the frozen fossils of many Ice Age mammals, meaning paleontologists must work quickly to study species that thrived when the planet was much colder.
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The same region also suffered a heatwave that saw air temperatures reach a very un-Siberian 38 degrees Celsius exactly a year ago. It's the highest temperature ever recorded in the region. However, high temperatures in the region are becoming more frequent, suggesting that climate change is increasingly affecting the planet.
